Tihei Taruke: New Ways of Viewing the World

The haka Tihei Taruke tells of the origins of Ngāti Porou Christianity. But it also speaks of how we merged new knowledge into our Ngati Porou worldview.

The Reverend Mohi Turei was a product of the old and the new. Mohi had been a student at Te Tapere-Nui-a-Whatonga, the ancient seat of learning at Rangitukia. There he had learned the deep knowledge of the tohunga, and was an expert in our Ngati Porou body of knowledge as well as our way of thinking. Later on Mohi along with Hare Tawha and Raneira Kawhia trained in another form of knowledge by attending the Waerenga-a-hika mission school under the guidance of the missionary William Williams. He was ordained as an Anglican minister in 1865.

Far from becoming “Westernised” in his thinking, Mohi (who never spoke English) instead spent the next fifty years working on merging the two world views. He wrote prolifically in Maori language newspapers such as Te Pipiwharauroa as well as carving whakairo and composing haka and karakia.

In the haka ‘Tihei Taruke’ Mohi tells the story of Piripi Taumatakura as the basis for a new Ngati Porou whakapono, emphasising that Ngati Porou made deliberate choices around spirituality for our own purposes. This new spirituality had a deep impact on the iwi, working its way into our matauranga (knowledge systems). The haka displays the sense of empowerment Ngati Porou owned over the process, and reconciles the two with the imagery of the taruke, a pot for catching crayfish in which both the old and the new could co-exist.

Read the story of Piripi Taumatakura...

Today the students of Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Tapere-Nui-a-Whatonga in Rangitukia still learn and perform the haka. The whanau focus on ‘te reo me nga tikanga o te Riu o Waiapu’ demands that complex thinking such as that exhibited in the haka by Mohi Turei still be told, as a lesson not only in our history but in how we think through the world around today.

Nga Kupu | The Words

Kaea: Ko nga iwi katoa e kanga mai nei ki
Kapa: Taku upoko
Kaea: He tapu
Kapa: Taku upoko
Kaea: Ko Tuainuku
Kapa: Taku upoko
Kaea: Ko Tuairangi
Kapa: Taku upoko
Kaea: I ahaha
Kapa: He koia he koia ha
Hai kai mahau te whetu
                Hai kai mahau te marama
                Tuku tonu heke tonu te ika ki Te Reinga Whio.
Kaea: Torona titaha.
Rangitukia ra te pariha I tukua atu ai nga Kaiwhakaako tokowha.
                Ruka ki Reporua
                Hohepa ki te Paripari
                Kawhia ki Whangakareao.
                Apakura ki Whangapirita e!
Kapa: E I aha tera.
                E haramai tonu koe ki roto ki Waiapu kia kite koe
                I Tawa Mapua e te paripari Tihei Taruke
                I kiia nei e Rerekohu
                ‘Hoatu karia ana kauae
                Purari paka, kaura mokai. Hei.
Kaea: Ko kokoma ko kokoma.
Kapa: Ko te hau tapu e rite ki te kai na Mataariki pakia
                Tapa reireia koia tapa
                Tapa konunua koia ra ka tukua
                I aue! Hei!

This story is part of the Matauranga/Knowledge theme. Read more here...